Console Corner: Mortal Kombat brought to life

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Published:06:00Saturday 19 September 2015

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And now for something a little bit different.

A project has seen computer games brought to life thanks to a group of martial arts specialists producing a revolutionary new battle suit – that allows wearers to compete in real life Mortal Kombat.

Unified Weapons Master, an Australian company, has built the ‘Lorica’ – a hi-tech armour which contains scores of sensors that register hits during bouts – and depletes their health bar.

The suit allows “gamers” to bash each other with weapons in real-life bouts based on fighting computer games.

The Sydney-based company is trying to raise £45,000 through web donations to bring its next-generation fighting sport to life.

The polymer armour includes pressure and motion sensors that allows the computer software to differentiate between a light hit, that would remove some of the health bar, and complete ‘kill shots.’

Mortal Kombat brought to life by an Australian company Photo: SWNS

The scoring system features a health bar, often seen in beat ‘em up games like Street Fighter and Tekken. If a fighter has sufficient ‘injuries’ on a limb, the armour will flash red and they will be unable to use it for the rest of the fight.

Matches consist of best of three rounds, and organisers hope to create a worldwide league of fighting enthusiasts, who are happy bashing each other around the head with rubber weapons.

A spokesman for the company said: “We’ve developed and patented a futuristic, hi-tech intelligent suit of armour, constructed with advanced composite materials and fully integrated with force measurement sensors and technology to allow this to happen.

“We need your help to complete funding and launch this new combat sport.”

In just 14 days, the group managed to raise almost half their total using web-based crowdfunding site Indiegogo.

The suits contain a helmet cam, capture biometric data like heart rates, and also a voice-changing microphone so users can shout “get over here” like Mortal Kombat icon Scorpion.

With virtual reality set to play a big part in gaming in the next decade UWM could have stumbled on something quite brilliant.